History | Harvard University Harvard University Social Media and Newsletters Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States, established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was named after the College’s first benefactor, the young minister John Harvard of Charlestown, who upon his death in 1638 left his library and half his estate to the institution. A statue of John Harvard stands today in front of University Hall in Harvard Yard, and is perhaps the University’s best known landmark. View of list of historical facts Harvard University has 12 degree-granting Schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The University has grown from nine students with a single master to an enrollment of more than 20,000 degree candidates including undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. There are more than 360,000 living alumni in the U.S. and over 190 other countries. Harvard University Archives The Harvard University Archives are maintained by the Harvard University Library system and are a great resource to access Harvard’s historical records. The Harvard Shield On Sept.

8, 1836, at Harvard’s Bicentennial celebration, it was announced that President Josiah Quincy had found the first rough sketch of the College arms – a shield with the Latin motto “VERITAS” (“Verity” or “Truth”) on three books – while researching his History of Harvard University in the College Archives. During the Bicentennial, a white banner atop a large tent in the Yard publicly displayed this design for the first time. Until Quincy’s discovery, the hand-drawn sketch (from records of an Overseers meeting on Jan. 6, 1644) had been filed away and forgotten. It became the basis of the seal officially adopted by the Corporation in 1843 and still informs the version used today. Why Crimson? Crimson was officially designated as Harvard’s color by a vote of the Harvard Corporation in 1910. But why crimson? A pair of rowers, Charles W. Eliot, Class of 1853, and Benjamin W.

Crowninshield, Class of 1858, provided crimson scarves to their teammates so that spectators could differentiate Harvard’s crew team from other teams during a regatta in 1858. Eliot became Harvard’s 21st president in 1869 and served until 1909; the Corporation vote to make the color of Eliot’s bandannas the official color came soon after he stepped down. But before the official vote by the Harvard Corporation, students’ color of choice had at one point wavered between crimson and magenta – probably because the idea of using colors to represent universities was still new in the latter part of the 19th century. Pushed by popular debate to decide, Harvard undergraduates held a plebiscite on May 6, 1875, on the University’s color, and crimson won by a wide margin. The student newspaper – which had been called The Magenta – changed its name with the very next issue. U.S.

Presidents and Honorary Degrees After George Washington’s Continental Army forced the British to leave Boston in March 1776, the Harvard Corporation and Overseers voted on April 3, 1776, to confer an honorary degree upon the general, who accepted it that very day (probably at his Cambridge headquarters in Craigie House). Washington next visited Harvard in 1789, as the first U.S. president. Other U.S. presidents to receive an honorary degree include: 1781 John Adams Cambridge and Harvard University: Boston, Massachusetts - MA, USA Cambridge and Harvard University Cambridge and Harvard University (MIT) (Boston, Massachusetts - MA, USA) Although their histories have long been intertwined, Cambridge is a separate city from Boston. Just across the Charles River, Cambridge is full of green lawns, flowering trees, red-brick squares and has an invigorating modern atmosphere - young, bustling and trendy. Newtowne, as it was first called, was established in 1630 and quickly became the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

In 1636 a college was founded - the first in America, later to become Havard - for the purpose of training young men for the ministry. That same year the town was renamed Cambridge, after the town in England where many of the Puritans had completed their studies. In 1639 the first printing press in the New World was established in Cambridge and it soon began producing the very first American publications. Today, Cambridge exudes an academic atmosphere - which is not surprising since half of its 100,000 population is involved in education and the universities. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are located here, two world-renowned institutions. The heart of Cambridge is Havard Square (actually a triangle) and is full or more bookstores than you will find in many states, also containing many unique shops and national chains. In the center of the square is the landmark 'Out of Town News', with newspapers and magazines from every corner of the globe. Most of the major sites are within easy walking distance of the square.

The surrounding blocks are crammed with all the bookstores, cafés, restaurants and shops that you would expect to find in a town that caters for 30,000 university students. Among the school's several museums is the Museum of Natural History, where over 800 lifelike hand-blown glass flowers and plants are on display. An enormous shopping complex in situated in the center and includes many well-known department stores, smaller shops, cafés and countless food outlets. You could probably spend all day shopping here and being under cover, it is an ideal way to spend a rainy day. As well as Harvard Square, there is also Inman Square (brimming with shopping and dining), Kendall Square (home to MIT), and Porter Square (with antique shops, boutiques, sidewalk cafés and a serious concentration of Japanese enterprises). These are all treasure-troves of shops, museums and historic sites. The wealthy Loyalist Tories of the 18th century built grand houses along the western end of Brattle Street, giving it the name Tory Row. Fine examples of these houses can still be found, in particular numbers 159 and 175.

The oldest church in Cambridge, Christ Church, was built in 1760 and this simple gray and white building sits on the edge of Cambridge Common. A brass plaque marks the pew where George Washington and his wife worshipped on New Year's Eve in 1755. Harvard University Founded in 1636, Harvard is the oldest university in the United States and among its graduates are six US Presidents - John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, and John F. Kennedy. The historic Harvard Square contains many noteworthy buildings and monuments, including the 1726 Wadsworth House (headquarters for General George Washington in 1775), Daniel Chester French's 1884 statue of John Harvard and Widener Library, housing the world's largest university book collection with more than 13 million volumes. Harvard: The Oldest Institution of Higher Learning in the United States? - Heraclitean River Heraclitean River April 23, 2010 heraclitus No comments I discovered a bit of historical trivia recently that is really quite fun, and also a bit serious.

Harvard claims that it is the oldest college in the U.S. It furthermore claims to have the oldest continuously operating corporation in the U.S. (i.e., the Harvard Corporation, which runs the college). Turns out both claims are suspect. Many people who have visited Cambridge, Massachusetts know the statue in Harvard Yard to be “the statue of three lies.” It is labeled something like “John Harvard, Founder, 1638.” The “lies” are: the statue is not a likeness of John Harvard (actually a model) Harvard was founded by Massachusetts, not by John Harvard the college was founded two years earlier in 1636. Ah, but it turns out there are many, many more lies buried on many signs and documents about Harvard. First off, Harvard wasn’t founded in 1636. It only became known as “Harvard College” after John Harvard died in 1638. The General Court of Massachusetts did indeed order a “New College” to be created in Cambridge (then Newtowne), but no work had been done before 1638. At that time, no educational institution could grant degrees without a government charter, which Harvard didn’t have.

That didn’t stop it from starting to graduate people in the 1640s. In 1650, Harvard was granted a charter by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This created the corporation known as “The President and Fellows of Harvard,” which is still the official governing body of Harvard. It claims to be the oldest corporation in the U.S. still in existence. The charter of 1650 is the one the university trots out on occasion, as they did during the recent inauguration of the new president of Harvard. How an institution of higher learning that can only legally grant degrees if chartered claims to date to 1636 when the charter was passed in 1650 is an interesting question. But it only gets worse. What I’m about to tell you is information that you’d never find on Harvard’s (or any) website. In 1684, the King of England was annoyed at Massachusetts for a number of things. A writ of scire facias was issued against the colony, something rarely done today, but basically it is a writ issued for officials to appear in court and show cause for an action when a government or official exceeds its authority.

The actual official or government in charge usually revokes the offending actions. One of the issues in the writ was that Massachusetts Bay Colony had exceeded its authority in founding a college that was now granting degrees. That could only be done by royal authority. The King went further and annulled the charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony. For all legal purposes, Massachusetts had never existed, and without a government to charter it, Harvard again went back to the status of essentially “illegally” awarding degrees. Increase Mather, then president of Harvard, went to England to petition the king for a royal charter for Harvard. He failed, primarily (it seems) because of his insistence on certain puritanical ideas and the fact that he did not want to grant the king license to “visit” Harvard, i.e., to govern it or dictate policy when he wished. In the 1690s, Mather and others managed to get the Massachusetts Bay Colony rechartered (now as an expanded “Province of Massachusetts Bay”), but there was still no Harvard charter. Eventually, Mather gave up petitioning the king and managed to convince the new government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay to create a new Harvard charter.

They did so, twice, in the 1690s, after Mather finally agreed to give up some of his crazy puritanical nonsense. (At that time, Harvard’s theology was a little wacky, and it was more-or-less a seminary, so that was a big issue.) Both times, the King of England revoked the charter. Time passed, and finally a decade or so later, Massachusetts declared that the previous 1650 charter had never been invalidated. It had no authority to do so, and in fact, it doesn’t really make sense that it could declare that a charter issued by a government that had never existed legally (due to the King’s annulment in 1686) could somehow still be valid and had never been revoked. The King, it seems, could not be bothered to revoke a charter that he had already revoked. But Harvard kept on going for almost another century, operating without any official legal standing. If you doubt that this was a serious legal issue, consider that another charter for Harvard was actually written into the new Massachusetts Constitution when the Commonwealth was formed in 1780 after it declared independence.

This is the first undisputed date when Harvard was awarding degrees legally as an institution of higher learning. By that point, there were a half dozen other colleges founded in the colonies either by the King or by charter from a local government with the King’s authority. All of this is an interesting story, to me, even though it may seem like a legal technicality. In effect, for the 150 years or so that Harvard was operating without a valid charter, it was not a valid institution of higher learning according to standards of the day. While in Massachusetts (and even in England, to some extent), bearers of Harvard degrees were treated with proper respect, there clearly was enough concern about legitimacy that the new commonwealth felt the need to recharter it again in 1780. Other colleges with royal charters in other colonies didn’t feel the need to recharter themselves when they declared independence. In fact, royal charters for colleges were explicitly dealt with by the U.S. Supreme Court case Trusties of Dartmouth College v.

Woodworth (1819), where the Supreme Court held that provisions of the original charter of Dartmouth by George III were still operative, even though the state of New Hampshire wanted to change some of the charter’s provisions. If these pre-existing college charters were still valid, why should Massachusetts feel the need to recharter Harvard, unless there were some serious doubt about its legal standing? The wording in the new Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is very precise: “Whereas our wise and pious ancestors, so early as the year one thousand six hundred and thirty six, laid the foundation of Harvard-College, in which University many persons of great eminence have, by the blessing of GOD, been initiated in those arts and sciences, which qualified them for public employments, both in Church and State. . . .” No reference is made to the 1650 charter, nor anything but mention that the “foundation” was laid “so early as” 1636. While Harvard by the late 18th century was a good institution producing well-educated people, it essentially was not an accredited institution, in today’s parlance.

It might as well have been selling degree certificates by mail order, since their legitimacy could be questionable on legal grounds, even if a legal challenge was rarely (if ever) done in practice. And the Harvard Corporation technically did not have standing according to English law, putting it on par with an illegal syndicate today. At least, this seems to be the most reasonable way to interpret the situation; it was just that the King couldn’t be bothered to revoke something that didn’t exist. It’s relatively hard to come by any of this information, since Harvard has done a very good job of ignoring some of the unsightly elements of its early history. Perhaps there were actually some court cases dealing with this, but this is the story I could piece together from a few references. So is Harvard’s claim to “the oldest college in the U.S.” valid? Only if you accept that a “college” operating without the same kind of charter that every other institution of higher learning in the world had at that time (whether from a king, government, or pope) was actually a valid college.

The 25 Oldest Colleges in America - Niche Blog In the Neighborhood The 25 Oldest Colleges in America Niche took a look at the founding years of American universities, including those that went through name changes and are still in operation today, and compiled this list of Oldest Colleges in America. 1 Acceptance Rate 6% Even though this oldest Ivy went on to be named for university benefactor John Harvard, it originally went by the names “New College” or “the college at New Towne.” King William III and Queen Mary III Acceptance Rate 33% U.S. presidents like Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe went to this Virginia school, in addition to 16 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Acceptance Rate 87% It may have been christened “St. John’s College” in 1784, but the school had its origins as “King William’s School” in 1696—Maryland’s first “free” school (“free” meaning to liberate students through education).

Acceptance Rate 6% The charter name of this school wasn’t too original (“Collegiate School”), but in 1718, it was renamed “Yale College” in honor of benefactor Elihu Yale, who served as governor of the British East India Company. Evolved from Kent County Free School Acceptance Rate 56% Aside from allowing the college use of his name, George Washington also granted 50 guineas to this school in Chestertown, Md. MAP: The Oldest College In Every State - Business Insider MAP: The Oldest College In Every State Aug. 7, 2014, 3:02 PM 68,313 Higher-education information website eCollegeFinder has put together this great map showing the oldest college in each state based on when they first opened their doors to students. The colleges represented on the map range from some of the most prestigious academic institutions in the country to flagship state universities. The oldest college in the country — Massachusetts' Harvard University — has been open since 1636, while University of Alaska Fairbanks is less than a century old. Research for this map was conducted by eCollegeFinder's Mike Simmons.

Harvard University | university, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States | Britannica.com Harvard University university, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States Written By: Massachusetts Harvard University, oldest institution of higher learning in the United States (founded 1636) and one of the nation’s most prestigious. It is one of the Ivy League schools. The main university campus lies along the Charles River in Cambridge , Massachusetts , a few miles west of downtown Boston . Harvard’s total enrollment is about 20,000. Harvard’s history began when a college was established at New Towne , which was later renamed Cambridge for the English alma mater of some of the leading colonists. Classes began in the summer of 1638 with one master in a single frame house and a “college yard.” Harvard was named for a Puritan minister, John Harvard , who left the college his books and half of his estate. John Harvard, sculpture by Daniel Chester French; in front of University Hall, Harvard University, … © Sam Chadwick/Shutterstock.com At its inception Harvard was under church sponsorship, although it was not formally affiliated with any religious body.

During its first two centuries the college was gradually liberated, first from clerical and later from political control, until in 1865 the university alumni began electing members of the governing board. During his long tenure as Harvard’s president (1869–1909), Charles W. Eliot made Harvard into an institution with national influence. The alumni and faculty of Harvard have been closely associated with many areas of American intellectual and political development. By the end of the 20th century, Harvard had educated six U.S. presidents—John Adams, John Quincy Adams , Rutherford B. Hayes , Theodore Roosevelt , Franklin D. Roosevelt , and John F. Kennedy—and a number of justices , cabinet officers, and congressional leaders. Literary figures among Harvard graduates include Ralph Waldo Emerson , Oliver Wendell Holmes , Henry David Thoreau , James Russell Lowell , Henry James , Henry Adams , T.S. Eliot, John Dos Passos , E.E. Cummings, Walter Lippmann , and Norman Mailer . Other notable intellectual figures who graduated from or taught at Harvard include the historians Francis Parkman , W.E.B.

Du Bois, and Samuel Eliot Morison ; the astronomer Benjamin Peirce ; the chemist Wolcott Gibbs; and the naturalist Louis Agassiz . William James introduced the experimental study of psychology into the United States at Harvard in the 1870s. Similar Topics Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Harvard’s undergraduate school, Harvard College, contains about one-third of the total student body. The core of the university’s teaching staff consists of the faculty of arts and sciences, which includes the graduate faculty of arts and sciences. The university has graduate or professional schools of medicine, law, business, divinity, education, government, dental medicine, design, and public health. The schools of law, medicine, and business are particularly prestigious. Among the advanced research institutions affiliated with Harvard are the Museum of Comparative Zoology (founded in 1859 by Agassiz), the Gray Herbarium, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Arnold Arboretum , and the Fogg Art Museum . Also associated with the university are an astronomical observatory in Harvard, Massachusetts; the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C.

, a centre for Byzantine and pre-Columbian studies; and the Harvard-Yenching Institute in Cambridge for research on East and Southeast Asia . The Harvard University Library is one of the largest and most important university libraries in the world. Baker Library at Harvard Business School, Harvard University, Boston. © Jorge Salcedo/Shutterstock.com Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Chris Szabla. Radcliffe College, one of the Seven Sisters schools, evolved from informal instruction offered to individual women or small groups of women by Harvard University faculty in the 1870s. In 1879 a faculty group called the Harvard Annex made a full course of study available to women, despite resistance to coeducation from the university’s administration. Following unsuccessful efforts to have women admitted directly to degree programs at Harvard, the Annex, which had incorporated as the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, chartered Radcliffe College in 1894. The college was named for the colonial philanthropist Ann Radcliffe , who established the first scholarship fund at Harvard in 1643. Graduate seminar in management at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.

Brian Smith; courtesy of Radcliffe College Britannica Stories View More External Links Official Site of Harvard University "Overview of this Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.-based educational institution. Provides a history and information on its divisions, courses, facilities, research programs, museums, libraries, and events. Also includes a glossary." Britannica Web sites Harvard University - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) One of the Ivy League schools, Harvard University is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and one of the most prestigious. It is a private university that was founded in 1636 in what is now Cambridge, Massachusetts. The main campus lies along the Charles River, a few miles west of downtown Boston. A campus in Boston is home to the schools of medicine, dentistry, and public health. Article History The Oldest Schools in America - Blog | USC Rossier Online The Oldest Schools in America April 23, 2012 by Sarah Fudin Have you ever wondered how far back the history of education in America goes? How long has our country worked to promote the education of future generations, and what did early schools look like?

Delving into our past paints a vivid picture of an emphasis on education that dates back to the original colonies. Learning has always been a cornerstone of American society. It is a part of us, and it evolves alongside us. The are five of the oldest schools in America, and each offers unique insight into where we came from and even where we are today: Boston Latin School Boston Latin School (BLS) is the first public school in America, founded in 1635. The first classes were held in the home of Philemon Pormort, the first public school teacher in the country. Town funds were used to support the school, and it was decreed that 50 pounds per year would be given to Pormort as a salary. Admission was determined by reading bible verses. Latin, Greek, grammar and arithmetic were the core of the first curriculum, and the school day went from 7 A.M. to 5. BLS has a long history of schoolmasters, ranging from Revolutionary War patriots to famous colonial thinkers. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, five began their education at BLS: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Treat Paine and William Hooper.

Nowadays, BLS is a six-year college preparatory school grounded in education in the classics. Harvard University Harvard University, one of the most famous colleges in America, is also the oldest, founded in 1636 by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The court awarded 400 pounds to the establishment of a “colledge” that was used for the purchasing of a house and a plot of land. The plot of land, known as the “College Yard,” remains today at the southern edge of Harvard’s campus. In 1638, John Harvard, the first benefactor, willed his library of 400 books to the University. In his honor, the court decided that the college would be named Harvard instead of Cambridge. Nine students became Harvard’s first graduating class in 1642, and over the last 360 plus years, Harvard has grown enrolled to enroll more than 20,000 students each year. Currently, there are over 360,000 living alumni in the world.

Hartford Public High School Founded in 1638, Hartford Public High School (HPHS) is the second public secondary school in the United States, serving the community of Hartford, Connecticut. Originally Thomas Hooker’s Latin School, HPHS began as a Puritanical school to educate young men to join the ministry. By the 18 century it was known as Hartford Grammar School and primarily taught Greek and Latin. By 1847, the school became HPHS, and for the first time, allowed women to enroll. The original building burned down in 1882, and the building that was erected in its place is the foundation for the school’s modern campus. Currently, HPHS serves grades nine through 12, and uses a system of academies, or “small learning communities,” to emphasize different areas of education. There is an Academy of Engineering/Green Technology, an Academy of Law and Government, a Nursing Academy and a Freshman Academy. HPHS prides itself on its remarkable fossil collection and is one of the only high schools to have received a donation of dinosaur tracks.

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School In 1648, Cambridge became Massachusetts’ fifth town to establish a public school, and it was the first school aimed at preparing students for college. In 1660, the school was taken over by Old Cambridge and began to teach English grammar as well as classic Greek and Latin. By 1832, it opened its doors to women as well, and in 1886, the two components were divided: classics became the Cambridge Latin School, and English became the Cambridge English High School. The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School was founded in 1977, when Cambridge Latin School, Cambridge English High School and the Rindge School of Technical Arts were merged to become one of the most diverse schools in the United States. Some famous alumni include Matt Damon, and Ben and Casey Affleck. Hopkins Academy Hopkins Academy was founded in 1664 in the town of Hadley, Massachusetts, through money from a wealthy London merchant named Edward Hopkins. Hopkins was devoted to education and stipulated in his will that his money would go to the founding of schools in America. Four schools in total were founded by Edward Hopkins.

For years, Hopkins Academy was a private school, though it is currently the only public high school in the town of Hadley. SHARE Oldest US Universities | List of Oldest Colleges in America Oldest Universities In The US By Web Infoguy 221k views 36 items tags f t p @ The oldest colleges in America are still some of the most prestigious universities in the USA. It may seem hard to believe, but many old American colleges have history that dates all the way back to the time before the United States even became its own country in 1776. The list starts with the first college ever in America, Harvard, which was founded in 1636. Many of the oldest universities in the US still retain important traditions that were started centuries ago, when they were founded. What are the oldest universities in the US? Historic figures have graduated from these alma maters and it's always interesting to visit and see what brick or stone your favorite author or scientist may have walked on their way to class. Is your university among these famous, storied schools? Check out the list to find out!

List Photo: user uploaded image Z G Options B Comments & Embed 1 Historical Facts | Harvard University Harvard University Social Media and Newsletters The Harvard University Archives are maintained by the Harvard University Library system and are a great resource to access Harvard’s historical records. Harvard is perhaps best-known because of its enduring history of innovation in education. But even die-hard Harvard buffs are not likely to know all of these Harvard firsts and historical snippets. Year Description 1607 John Harvard, the College’s future namesake and first benefactor, was baptized at St. Saviour’s Church (now Southwark Cathedral), London. 1635 John Harvard received his M.A. from Cambridge University, England. 1636 First College in American colonies founded. The “Great and General Court of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England” approves £400 for the establishment of “a schoale or colledge” later to be called “Harvard.” 1637 The Great and General Court orders the “colledge” established one year earlier to be located at Newetowne (renamed “Cambrige” in 1638).

Late 1637 or early 1638 The Overseers purchased the College’s first piece of real estate: a house and an acre of land from Goodman Peyntree. Located on the southern edge of “Cow-yard Row” and soon distinguished as the “College Yard,” this tract became the nucleus of present-day Harvard Yard and remains at the southern end of the Old Yard (the area west of Thayer, University, and Weld halls). 1638 John Harvard wills his library (400 books) and half his estate to the College. 1639 In recognition of John Harvard’s bequest, the Great and General Court orders “that the colledge agreed upon formerly to bee built at Cambridg shalbee called Harvard Colledge.” 1640 Reverend Henry Dunster is appointed first president of Harvard. 1642 First Harvard Commencement with nine graduates. 1649 The Town of Cambridge and President Henry Dunster give Harvard the “College Farm” at Billerica, Mass., which paid annual rent to the College until the farm was sold in 1775. 1650 Harvard granted Charter, still in effect today (with 2010 amendments).

1653 John Sassamon, a Massachuset Indian, became the first known Native American to study at Harvard (probably for a term or so). A disciple of Indian Bible translator John Eliot, Sassamon later became a scribe and interpreter to Wampanoag Chief Metacom (a.k.a. Metacomet, Pometacom, King Philip). In 1675, Sassamon was murdered as an English informant, touching off King Philip’s War, New England’s most devastating conflict between Natives and newcomers. 1692 Increase Mather awarded Harvard's first Doctor of Divinity degree. 1755 John Adams, future U.S. president, graduates. 1764 Original Harvard Hall burns, destroying some 5,000 volumes and all but one of John Harvard's books. 1775 Continental soldiers are quartered in Harvard buildings. 1776 Eight Harvard alumni sign the Declaration of Independence. 1780 The Massachusetts Constitution went into effect and officially recognized Harvard as a university. The first medical instruction given to Harvard students in 1781 and the founding of the Medical School in 1782 made it a university in fact as well as name.

1781 Oldest continuous chapter of Phi Beta Kappa formed at Harvard. 1782 Twenty-nine-year-old John Warren was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the Medical School . During the previous year while head of the army hospital in Boston, he had given Harvard students their first formal medical instruction. Benjamin Waterhouse was named to a second Medical School professorship, in the “Theory and Practice of Physic.” 1783 With high ceremony, Harvard Medical School officially opened as the “Medical Institution of Harvard University.” Its first home was the ever-versatile Holden Chapel. 1787 John Quincy Adams, future U.S. president, graduates. 1791 A writer in the Boston press accused Harvard of poisoning students’ minds with Edward Gibbon’s monumental History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88). President Joseph Willard replied that far from even considering Gibbon, the College used a text by French historian Abbé Millot.

Nathaniel Ames, who left Harvard around 1812, recalled Millot’s as “the most utterly worthless and contemptible work of that kind or any other extant.” 1810 John Thornton Kirkland begins 18-year presidency. 1815 Rutherford B. Hayes, future U.S. president, graduates from the Law School . 1846 John Collins Warren, Medical School professor, conducts first public demonstration of ether as surgical anesthetic. 1848 Louis Agassiz appointed professor of zoology and geography. 1849 Dr. George Parkman disappeared at the Medical School in one of the most famous murder cases in Harvard history. Earlier, Parkman had lent money to colleague Dr. John White Webster. To secure the loan, Webster gave Parkman a mortgage on his personal property, including a valuable collection of minerals. When Parkman learned that Webster had backed another loan with the same collection, he began relentlessly pursuing Webster to collect the debt. A week after the disappearance, a suspicious janitor broke through a brick vault below Webster’s lab and found human body parts, which the authorities soon discovered all around the lab.

Found guilty of first-degree murder, Webster belatedly confessed and appealed for clemency, but was hanged on Aug. 30, 1850. Parkman’s widow led a fund drive to support Webster’s wife and children. 1852 Harvard wins first intercollegiate sports event, a boat race against Yale on Lake Winnipesaukee. 1854 Henry David Thoreau '37 publishes Walden. 1855 Holworthy Hall gets first gas lights in the Yard. 1862 The Overseers confirmed the Rev. Thomas Hill, Class of 1843, as Harvard’s 20th President. His brief tenure brought higher admissions standards, a series of public “University Lectures” (est. 1863) by distinguished Harvard and non-Harvard scholars that paved the way for the “ Graduate School of Arts and Sciences ” and University Extension, and progress toward a system of elective courses. Hill also conducted nationwide searches for new faculty appointees. 1865 Election of Overseers placed in the hands of alumni, severing legal ties with the Commonwealth.

1867 The Harvard Dental School made its first appointments: Daniel Harwood, professor of dental pathology and therapeutics; and Nathan Cooley Keep, professor of mechanical dentistry. 1869 At the meetinghouse of First Church, Unitarian, Charles William Eliot was formally installed as Harvard’s 21st President. From the outset, Eliot’s 105-minute address delineated his broad educational purposes: “The endless controversies whether language, philosophy, mathematics, or science supplies the best mental training, whether general education should be chiefly literary or chiefly scientific, have no practical lesson for us to-day. This University recognizes no real antagonism between literature and science, and consents to no such narrow alternatives as mathematics or classics, science or metaphysics. We would have them all, and at their best.” 1870 The Rev. Phillips Brooks laid the cornerstone of Memorial Hall . 1872 Arnold Arboretum is established. 1873 Charles Sprague Sargent officially began a 54-year term as first director of the Arnold Arboretum (est. 1872).

Sargent soon enlisted the aid of pioneering landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted – then busy designing the Boston park system – to help him lay out the grounds. “Olmsted immediately grasped the idea that an arboretum where the public could see varied plantations of rare and exotic trees and shrubs skilfully [sic] selected, artistically arranged, and grown under scientific oversight, would not only be an appropriate feature in the park system [now known as Boston’s “Emerald Necklace”] but might well become its culminating attraction,” Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, the Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany, wrote in the late 1920s. Nonetheless, the Arboretum proved a hard sell, Robinson noted. “Neither the City [of Boston] nor the Harvard Corporation welcomed the idea. The press was indifferent, and the public apathetic. Nine years of persistent effort were required before it was possible to draft a plan of procedure acceptable both to the City and to the University and to secure its approval by the General Court of Massachusetts.” 1874 Department of Fine Arts is established.

1875 New Haven, Conn., hosted the first Harvard-Yale football game , which Harvard won, to the delight of some 150 student boosters from Cambridge. 1879 The Harvard Annex, later known as Radcliffe College , opens with 27 female students. 1880 Theodore Roosevelt makes Phi Beta Kappa. 1886 250th anniversary celebrated with more than 2,500 alumni and friends with President Grover Cleveland in attendance. 1890 Land given by Major Henry Lee Higginson '55 dedicated as Soldiers Field, honoring alumni who died in the Civil War. 1894 First course offered in landscape architecture and city planning. 1903 Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president of the Harvard Crimson 1903 Country's first concrete football stadium is built. 1904 FDR graduates. 1908 With 59 students, the Graduate School of Business Administration formally opened as a Graduate Department of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Through this initial connection to established departments, President Eliot and Dean Edwin Francis Gay hoped to get the newcomer off to a well-supported start. Other U.S.

universities began offering business training as early as 1886, but the course of study was overwhelmingly undergraduate. In seeking to establish business as a profession, Harvard Business School became the country’s first business program limited to college graduates. By the end of the first academic year, the School had 80 students (regular and special) from 14 colleges and 12 states. 1909 Abbott Lawrence Lowell begins his 24-year presidency. 1910 President Lowell establishes Commission on Extension Courses, now the Harvard Extension School . 1910 Theodore Roosevelt, Class of 1880, served as the 34th president of the Harvard Alumni Association (est. 1840). 1913 The College Library contained about 1,127,500 volumes. 1920 The Business School issued Marketing Problems, its first case book, developed by Marketing Professor Melvin Thomas Copeland. 1920 Graduate School of Education is established.

1924 The Harvard-Boston (Egyptian) Expedition began excavation of the royal cemetery of King Cheops (Khufu) near the Great Pyramid and soon identified the tombs of Prince Kawa’ab (Cheops’s eldest son), four other princes, Princess Meresankh II, and two pyramid priests. 1926 Samuel Eliot Morison is appointed official historian for Tercentenary. 1928 First "iron lung" is devised by two doctors at the School of Public Health . 1930 The House Plan is established with the opening of Dunster House and Lowell House. 1933 James Bryant Conant begins his 20-year presidency. 1936 Harvard's Tercentenary Celebration with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in attendance. 1936 Graduate School of Public Administration is established. 1939 Walter Gropius, founder of Bauhaus, becomes head of architecture at Graduate School of Design . 1940 John F. Kennedy graduates. 1943 Two hundred Army Quartermaster officers arrived at the Business School for a three-month intensive course in business methods.

They formed a new unit of lieutenants and captains known as the Army Supply Officers’ Training School, a counterpart to the Navy Supply Corps School. 1943 The Harvard Alumni Bulletin tally of Harvard men in active military service equaled “the mythical 10,000 men of Harvard.” Seventy-eight Harvard men had been killed in the line of duty, 20 were missing in action, and another 20 were prisoners of war. 1944 IBM Mark I computer begins operation at Harvard. 1945 Publication of President Conant's General Education in a Free Society; its recommendation will have wide influence. 1945 At the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond, Calif., the 10,800-ton SS Harvard Victory was launched as the first of a new series of U.S. Maritime Commission ships named after U.S. educational institutions. The Harvard Corporation later voted to give the ship a library of about 140 volumes selected by the American Merchant Marine Library Association. A simple plaque acknowledged the University’s gift. 1947 General George C. Marshall receives honorary degree: announces "Marshall Plan" at commencement. 1953 Nathan M.

Pusey begins his 18-year presidency. 1955 Helen Keller is the first woman to receive Harvard honorary degree. 1956 Pusey announces major fund drive, the Program for Harvard College. 1956 Memorial Hall tower burns down. 1959 Fidel Castro is guest of Law School Forum. 1960 Mary I. Bunting establishes Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study . 1960 New cholera vaccine developed at Harvard Medical School . 1997 Mary Fasano became the oldest person ever to earn a Harvard degree when she graduated from the Extension School at the age of 89. 1998 Nelson Mandela awarded honorary degree at special convocation. 1999 Radcliffe College merges with Harvard College. 2001 Lawrence Summers is appointed president. 2001 On the eve of the 350th Commencement, Harvard’s four living Presidents—past, present, and future—gather for a group portrait in Loeb House. 2002 Former Astronomy Prof. Riccardo Giacconi shares half the Nobel Prize in Physics for pioneering work in astrophysics that led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources.

2004 Harvard Financial Aid Initiative is launched. 2007 School of Engineering and Applied Sciences is established. 2007 Drew Gilpin Faust begins duties as Harvard’s 28th President . She is the first woman to hold the position. 2009 Unified University-wide calendar is launched. 2010 The Harvard Corporation expands from 7 to 13 members. 2010 Harvard University will welcome ROTC back to campus now that Congress has repealed a ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. 2011 Harvard University awards degree to Native American student who died in 1665 just before Commencement. 2011 Harvard celebrates its 375th anniversary . 2012 MIT and Harvard announce EdX. 2012 Harvard announces plans to renew the University's 12 undergraduate houses. 2012 Harvard releases first University-wide Sustainability Impact Report. 2013

Question: Founded in 1636 which university claims to be the oldest in the USA?
Answer: HARVARD